New CPR Ad Squeezes The Facts Out Of Its Ad

July 22, 2009 2:29 pm ET

On July 22, 2009, Conservatives for Patients Rights released two versions of an ad titled "Squeeze." In the ad, CPR neglects to include any reputable sources or facts to back up its claim that additional government intervention in health care would harm Americans.

CPR Ad Squeezes New Juice Out Of Same
Old Lies About The Cost Of Reform

CPR: "Some of
Congress' health care plans could squeeze you four ways. It could raise taxes
by $600 billion, even taxing soda. It could add a trillion to the federal
deficit." [CPRights.org, accessed 7/22/09]

CBO Has Scored House Bill As
Deficit Neutral. According to the House Education and Labor Committee, the
Congressional Budget Office confirmed that the America's Affordable Health Choices
Act "produces a $6 billion surplus." Other estimates estimating that the bill
increases the deficit include the "long-term reform Medicare's physician fee
schedule to eliminate the potential 21 percent cut in fees...which will cost
about $245 billion. Those costs...will be absorbed under the upcoming
statutory 'pay go' legislation that is pending in the House." As Peter Orszag,
Director of the Office of Management and Budget, said, the payments to
physicians are "sort of already baked in to our fiscal trajectory." [Press
Release, House Education and Labor Committee, 7/20/2009; Fox News Sunday, 7/20/2009]

Democrats' Health Care Reform To Cost $611 Billion
Over Ten Years.Reuters reported that the CBO scoring of the Democrats' "plan to
overhaul the U.S.
healthcare system has dropped to $611 billion over a decade." [Reuters, 7/2/09]

Obama Has Set Aside $634 Billion For Health Care Over
Ten Years. The Washington Post reported that President Obama set aside a "$634
billion reserve fund over the next decade." [Washington Post, 2/26/09]

Obama Tax Increases Are For The Top 5% ONLY. According to CNN, "Obama officials are pushing back
by noting they are just raising taxes for the top 5 percent of Americans while
95 percent of Americans got a tax cut with the recent stimulus plan." [CNN, 2/25/09]

CPR Squeezed 95% Figure Out Of Insurance
Industry-Backed Report

CAHI Membership Includes "Insurance Companies" And
"Insurance Brokers." According to its website, "CAHI's membership
includes insurance companies, small businesses, providers, nonprofit
associations, actuaries, insurance brokers and individuals. Since 1992, CAHI
has been an active advocate for market-oriented solutions to the problems in America's
health care system." [CAHI.org, accessed 7/22/09]

New America
Foundation: Family Health Coverage Will Be Nearly $25,000 By 2016. According to
the New America Foundation, under the current system of health care delivery in
the United States,
the full cost of an employer-based health plan for a family will be $24,291 by
2016. [New America Foundation, The Cost of Doing Nothing, November 2008]

Without Reform, Premiums Will Continue To Be
Unaffordable For Many Americans. According to a new study released by Families
USA: "In 2008, the uninsured paid an average of 37 percent of the cost of care
that they received out of their own pockets.
However, they cannot usually afford to pay the whole bill on their own,
and a portion goes unpaid (this is called 'uncompensated care'). To cover the cost of this uncompensated care,
health care providers charge higher rates when insured people receive care, and
these increases are passed on to those who have insurance in the form of higher
premiums, known as a 'hidden health tax.'
In 2008, for example, this 'hidden health tax; increased premiums for
family health coverage by an average of $1,017, and, for single individuals, by
$368." [Families USA,
Coverage for America: We All Stand to
Gain, accessed 7/22/09,
parentheses original]

CPR Still Squeezing The Juice From That
Debunked Lewin Group Study

The Lewin Group Is Owned By Ingenix. NPR reported
that "the Lewin Group, [is] a number-crunching consulting group owned by
Ingenix, which is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group." [NPR, All Things Considered, 6/10/09]

UnitedHealth
And Ingenix Used Skewed "Data To Under-Reimburse Its Own Policyholders." During testimony given during a Senate
Commerce Committee hearing, John D. Rockefeller, IVA said: "Everywhere experts
have looked at this data, they have found what statisticians call a 'downward
skew' in the numbers. For ten years or
even longer, this skewed data was used to stick consumers with billions of
dollars that the insurance industry should have been paying. Ingenix markets two 'usual and customary'
database products that every major payer in the health insurance industry used
to calculate their reimbursement payments. Ingenix is a wholly-owned subsidiary
of Mr. Hemsley's company, UnitedHealth Group. UnitedHealth not only owns
Ingenix, but it also used the skewed Ingenix data to under-reimburse its own policyholders."
[Commerce.Senate.gov, 3/31/09]

NPR: Lewin Number Quoted "Hardly Represents The Entirety Of The Report." According to NPR, the 119 million figure "hardly
represents the entirety of the report [Lewin Group Vice President John] Sheils
and colleague Randy Haught put out in April. The point of the study was to show
that the number of people who would eventually join a government-sponsored
public insurance plan would vary - dramatically - depending on how that plan is
designed." [NPR, All Things Considered,
6/10/09]

Lewin Study Shows That As Few As 10.4 Million People
Could Move To The Public Plan. According to NPR, the Lewin Group's study
shows that "if the public plan is limited to fewer people (perhaps only those
in small businesses and individuals), or if the plan pays higher rates to
doctors and hospitals, fewer people would join, both because fewer would be
allowed and because the plan would be less financially attractive. According to
the study, the number of people dropping private coverage could be as low as
10.4 million." [NPR, All Things
Considered, 6/10/09]

Only A Few Insurance
Companies Dominate The Market, Leaving Americans With Limited Choices In Health
Care. According to the American Medical Association, 94 percent of
United States health care markets are considered highly concentrated, meaning
that one company or a small group of companies control a great deal of the
market. [American Medical Association, "Competition in Health Insurance," 2008
Update]

Insurance Companies Hire Agencies To "Do Computerized
Searches" Of A Person's Health Record. According to the Miami Herald, "to make sure that applicants are not lying, insurers
hire a data-gathering service... [to] do computerized searches of a person's drug
use, gleaned from pharmacy benefits managers and other databases." [Miami Herald, 3/28/09]

Insurers Use The Data To Deny Coverage And To Charge Higher
Premiums. According to a Business Week report, "Two-thirds of all health insurers are using
prescription data-not only to deny coverage to individuals and families but
also to charge some customers higher premiums or exclude certain medical
conditions from policies, according to agents and others in the industry. Some
carriers are also using the data to charge small employers higher group rates."
[Business Week, 7/23/08]

Insurance Applicants
Rejected Based On Height And Weight. In an
article offering advice on what to do when you lose your health care, the Washington Post reported: "'In the past four or five years, I've
had people turned down just because of height and weight,' says Jerry
Patt, an independent [health insurance] agent in Gaithersburg who has been in
the business for more than 35 years. 'They
could be having no medical problems whatsoever, but their build was not
acceptable.'" [Washington Post, 6/22/08, emphasis added]